COVID-19 and 2021 Programming

We hope you are well and adapting to the changed world of COVID-19. In response, CSAA is reorganizing 2021 – 2022 programs. We want to share CSAA’s program information with you:

Exhibition Series:

“Asian Maritime Travel Posters”, an exhibit of graphic depictions of Asia travel, is planned for November 2021, in cooperation with the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

“Ink Dance: 50 Years of Calligraphy by Yim Tse” is now scheduled at the Asian Centre and Asian Library at the University of British Columbia, with accompanying programs, in the spring of 2022.

“Mokuhan: Woodblock Prints by Naoko Matsubara and Noboru Sawai” is scheduled for the fall of 2022, in cooperation with The Nikkei Museum in Burnaby. These celebrated artists, active in Canada, have married traditional techniques with contemporary expressions.

Asian Illuminations Series:

Virtual programs in spring 2021 included: Ink Dance – a talk and video demonstration of Chinese calligraphy; Scott Williams on the west coast Manila Galleon shipwrecks; and Bird Tracks in the Air, a book launch of Chinese poetry. The events were held in cooperation with the Asian Library, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Maritime Museum and Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, respectively. Recordings of the events will be available soon on the website.

Upcoming 2021 programs include a video production on calligraphy with Ink Dance exhibit highlights and a tour of a Bonsai Garden and Nursery with accompanying lecture.

Several talks and demonstrations are also under development, including events on Japanese Kodo or Incense Ceremonies, Japanese Noh Mask Carving, the Art of the Tokonoma, the Cham Culture of Vietnam, Asia Pacific Folk Masks and Design in the Nitobe Garden. Programs offer rare opportunities to experience these art forms with Asian art and culture specialists.

Check the website for updates, to become a member, donate or sign up for event notices. All programs will follow BC Health guidelines. CSAA will continue to increase program accessibility by offering more virtual online events.

CSAA acknowledges we are all in challenging times. We are committed to continue CSAA’s presentation of Asian art and culture programs in 2021 and in the future.

Take care – we look forward to seeing you soon, in person or virtually!

— The CSAA Board

Bird Tracks in the Air

The Manila Galleon Wrecks of North America

A virtual talk presented by the Canadian Society for Asian Arts and the Vancouver Maritime Museum

Get ready to travel back in time and discover the Manila Galleon Wrecks of North America. Your guide at this virtual event on March 27, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. will be archaeologist Scott Williams.  

Large galleons built in the Spanish colony of Manila travelled between Spain and Acapulco, Mexico for 250 years from 1565 to 1815. The galleons were the largest ships of their time and carried luxury goods such as silk, Chinese porcelain and spices from Asia to Spanish colonists in the New World.

Three of those galleons were wrecked in North America:

• the Santo Cristo de Burgos—wrecked on the north Oregon coast in 1693
• the San Agustin—wrecked in central California in 1595
• the third galleon, yet to be definitively identified, lies in Baja California—wrecked in either 1578 or 1586

These wrecks have been studied by archaeologists over the past two decades and Scott Williams will share the results of those investigations. Each of these wrecks is the oldest shipwrecks in its area, and the wreck in California is the oldest shipwreck on the west coast.

Scott Williams is a professional archaeologist with over thirty-five years of experience conducting archaeological research throughout the Pacific Northwest, the islands of the Pacific and Australia. Williams is currently the cultural resources program manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation, where he oversees the agency’s archaeology and history program. He is also on the board of the Maritime Archaeological Society and serves as the principal Investigator for the Beeswax Wreck Project, a non-profit project investigating the Manila galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos which was wrecked on the north Oregon coast in 1693. He has just completed an edited volume on the three galleon wrecks in North America.

Registration for this presentation is free for Canadian Society of Asian Arts participants.

Ink Dance

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND
THE CSAA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
for 2021

Sunday, March 21st, 2021, 2-3:30pm

Members and Non-Members are welcome! 

Membership is required in order to vote at the AGM.

Memberships can be renewed with a cheque to the CSAA office:
Adult $30
Family $40
Senior/Student $25
Please make out cheques to the Canadian Society for Asian Arts
#260-5655 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 3A4
 A short calligraphy video, produced by CSAA, will be shown at the Society’s AGM.

Ink Dance: the Art and Techniques of Calligraphy
The video presents Greta Ho and Andrew Yang creating calligraphy with the
Four Treasures of the Scholar’s studio: the ink stick, ink stone, writing brush and paper.
Andrew and Greta are senior disciples of Master calligrapher Yim Tse,
and are devoted and skillful practitioners of the art.

We look forward to your participation in our first virtual AGM!